The 2011 Esquire Car Awards

The best cars seduce you as much as they transport you. You nail the pedal and your pulse rises. You offer to pick up the kids. You offer to go to the store. You offer to go anywhere — because you want to drive. We're talking about attainable, practical beauty. We're talking about these...

The 2011 Esquire Car of the Year: 2012 Audi A7

The 2011 Esquire Car of the Year: 2012 Audi A7

THE SPECS /// 310-HP 3.0-LITER V-6 /// 28/18 MPG /// $60,125

Carmaking is science, not art. There are limitations on the automotive designer's pen, hundreds of creativity-stifling rules concocted by governments concerned for your safety. But it wasn't always like this. A few decades ago, an impassioned draftsman could sketch up an impossible daydream, and if the circumstances were right, that dream would see showrooms. The stunning Jaguar E-Type, for example, was laid out by a former aircraft engineer with a fetish for aerodynamic formulas; the Lamborghini Miura was designed by an Italian who led with his crotch. But such beauty is now uncommon — it requires too many compromises for modern life, and compromises do not help a car company's bottom line.

Only every so often, they do. Which brings us to the Esquire Car of the Year.

Unlike some awards panels, here we do not assign points to contenders or tally the results according to some impenetrable formula. We go with what stirs the loins. The Car of the Year should be lustworthy and stylish, but it should also be good value, attainable for the average man. It should confidently ferry your boss to lunch yet never suggest that you've spent unnecessarily. It should swallow your commute as easily as a cross-country trip and inhale a winding back road as if it hasn't eaten for days.

We drove for months, over countless states and thousands of miles. Then ten of us took the seven top contenders to the Monticello Motor Club in upstate New York to test them on hairpin corners and 100-mph straightaways. At last, we came to a conclusion: The Esquire Car of the Year is the 2012 Audi A7...

Truck of the Year: 2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost

Truck of the Year: 2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost

THE SPECS /// 365-HP 3.5-LITER V-6 /// 22/16 MPG /// $28,185

America runs on trucks. The big ones lug food and Frigidaires down the interstate. The small guys fill our farms and hollers, beds stuffed with manure and migrant workers. Neither evolves much — the recipe for Haul was essentially nailed decades ago, and with the exception of fuel economy, it hasn't really changed. Which is why the Ford F-150 EcoBoost is so very important.

This is a garden-variety F-150, the best-selling vehicle in America for 29 years, that throws tradition into the combine. The old-school, industry-standard V-8 is gone, replaced by a blazingly unorthodox turbo V-6; the swap makes perfect sense but will nonetheless raise eyebrows in the heartland. It shouldn't. That 3.5-liter six is stronger than the F-150's cheapest eight (365 hp to 360, a whopping 420 lb-ft torque versus 380), but it's also worlds more intelligent. Direct injection and two turbochargers help it tow like a backcountry mule but crank out 22 mpg, 1 mpg more than the eight. Ninety percent of the engine's torque is available from just 1,700 rpm, or low enough to be always handy.

We've seen V-6 trucks before, but all of them sacrificed refinement or weren't strong enough to get their hands dirty. Here, there's no missing anything, just honest talent. When they close the book on the country's working-class workhorse, the EcoBoost will be marked as a turning point. This is when trucks got smart.